A Scandal in Bulgaria

scan·dal 

noun: 1. an action or event regarded as morally or legally wrong and causing general public outrage.

          2. Transgression or wrong doing

          3. disrepute.

After a very eventful night we wake up to find ourselves rumbling through a completely different country than we had left the day before. In Istanbul there was a lot of people (just under 14 million), when we woke up there was nothing, in Istanbul there was civilization, on the train, the toilet opened onto the tracks…everything was completely different. But for some reason it all made sense. We were in a country that until recently had been under the grip of Communism. And frankly I was wanting to see how many stereotypes I could find while on the train. 

I was sure to find many stereotypes but one thing still clung to the back of my mind, what in the world is Sofia going to look like. I felt like I was going on a blind date with someone from the moon. I didn't know what to expect other than it was going to be the most different from what I had experienced. 

We arrived at a random station in Bulgaria, I have no idea where. But we were pretty sure it wasn't Sofia. There weren't really any people there and it seemed to be a small town. We didn't think it was the capitol city of a country. We ended up sitting at this train station for about two and a half hours before we started moving again…about 30 meters before reversing. This proceeded to happen about four times before we made any progress.  Apparently we were adding more cars to the train.

While sitting at the station for what seemed like the whole day. a range of thoughts went through my head, "Are we actually in Sofia, should we get off. What if we aren't and the train leaves, no other train comes through here." As well as "No one speaks English or German so we cannot ask anyone what's going on." Fortunately we stayed on. And though our train was scheduled to be in Sofia at noon, it showed up around supper time. 

Arriving in Sofia seemed a bit Monty Pythonesque to me. I thought the soup would be made with Vodka and the drivers would be absolutely insane. I thought I would see men in uniforms marching down the streets and banners of a man in a giant mustache hanging from windows. Only the part about the drivers was actually true. While standing outside a grocery store the next day, I saw 5 almost collisions that would have been horrific, all in the span of 15 minutes. 

We wandered the city deciphering Cyrillic, which turned out to not be quite as hard as I thought, and we made it to the hostel. We had met an Australian on the train that was traveling alone so we offered to hang out. She ended up staying at the same hostel and then met some other Australians and a Canadian and hung out with them too. 

Through my trip so far I had been looking for stereotypes. I was hoping to see things like, a goat pulling a car, or a cart of bread, maybe a dead cow on the tracks, and a lot of root based foods everywhere. Let your mind wander on the stereotypes of the Eastern Block and thats what my perception of this part of the world was. I saw a nice car parked beside the tracks and thought it was a drug lords car with maybe some RPGs or a body in the trunk. I really knew nothing about this country or this region.

In Sofia, the train station wasn't really proving me wrong. Neither was just outside it. There was a bathroom that hadn't been used in forever that had trash piled almost two meters high in it. We kept walking and things kept getting nicer. The place where our hostel was, turned out to be a good spot. Then we found out what ten Euros a night will buy in a country like this. It may not be true all over, but we got a really good deal. Basically we had a quite large apartment to ourselves. To those of you who live in Europe and know what a Wohngemeinschaft or WG as most people call them, it was a nice one of those. America, its an apartment with several rooms and a common living area, kitchen and bathrooms (Yes Germany has just one word to describe that whole sentence). The 10E also got us a yummy supper and an all you can eat buffet breakfast. I was feeling good about this.

Stereotypes were sliding away by the minute. Not only was the city quite nice, but a lot more people than I thought, spoke English. I was thinking they would be pouring their waste into the gutters out of wooden buckets but instead there was free wifi in the parks. Also a fabulous trumpet street performer in said park, but I digress…I began to feel bad that I thought this way about such a beautiful place. Granted, there really was at one point a goat pulling a car full of assorted things right next to the train tracks, but it wasn't all like that. What I thought Communism would have left the country was poor, without hope, and pretty much grey and bleak. Instead what I saw was a concerted effort to change their history and their city and make a real name for themselves and their homeland. I couldn't imagine doing anything else if I were in their shoes. The people were incredibly nice and the food was not cooked in Vodka…at least not the food I had. There were several pretty churches and many things to see. Communism had left a giant gap in the classes. Not everything in Bulgaria was nice like Sofia, but I feel like in a few years…things could be different and running water could come out to the countryside too. 

At the end of the day in Sofia, I had really developed a fondness for the area. Also there were mountains. That's never a bad thing. The people were definitely not used to a whole lot of tourists, especially in February, so we got what felt like special attention. I loved my time in Bulgaria, and if I could counter my wrong doings, my transgression of ill thoughts towards this country, I would write a blog about how great my time was there. 

Heaven in a Cube -updated

Life around Friedensau had returned to normal after our Christmas break had finished. The daily attendance to class followed by the normal after school activities. We finally had snow, which fulfilled my every wish about winter. It stuck around for a while too. We built a giant snowman which became a bit famous as it was right in front of the building everyone had classes. Through all the time we had, Michael and I inadvertently reverted to our original plan for the coming trip. Have a plane ticket to Istanbul and a global pass train ticket out, other than that wing it. We did intend to do a bit of planning but that fell by the wayside. Life is more fun to live spontaneously anyways.

So we were off to Istanbul. I had never been farther east than Germany so I had no idea what to expect other than delightful food in Istanbul. The name Turkish delight is a bit of an understatement, its more like heaven in a cube, but in my eyes it also refers to anything edible in this country. If the food on the flight was any indication, it was going to be good eating for the next few days. It was not wrong. I was pleased. We landed in Ataturk around 11pm and found passport control and the visa counter. After that, we headed to the metro to get to our hostel. As we approached we noticed something a bit odd. There weren't many people heading that way and those that were, were running. A bit curious, we found our answer in the form of a rushing metro attendant who told us the last metro left at midnight. It was about a minute til. He ran around getting us the passes we needed and we boarded with seconds to spare. It was good because the airport was a really long ways from the rest of the town, and subsequently our hostel. We got off the metro to find all other forms of public transportation also closed. We kinda guessed where to go and managed to eventually find our hostel. We had several stray dogs follow us for about a half hour and when we got to the park separating the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque, they wandered off. Our hostel was right around the corner. Perfect location. We made it there by 2am, slept in a bit, and started Day 1 refreshed and ready to go.

*****

Day 1 in Istanbul started with an awesome, albeit fairly small, breakfast on the roof of our hostel. The perfect location allowed us to see the Blue Mosque and the ocean at the same time. Not a bad spot indeed. We met up with Jessica and Jeremy, other ACA friends who were in Istanbul, in the park between the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque. I didn't realize the night before just how big they were. They are quite massive. While waiting, I heard my first call to prayer in the minarets from the Blue Mosque. It was a really cool cultural experience. I also found some street vendors that were selling some awesome looking pastries with Nutella in them for one Turkish Lira (the currency there. 1 Lira = about 50 cents USD) so naturally I ate some.

The weather was never terrible in Istanbul. The one time it "rained" it lasted a whole five minutes and I think I felt two drops on me. We explored the insides of the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque where you had to adhere to the customs of Islam and take off your shoes and cover your head if you were a woman. 

After this we wandered around the Grand Bazaar marveling at all the vendors. The way they tried to get business from us was interesting. Following us around, sometimes grabbing our arms, and always practicing their English vernacular. Things like 'sup bro, and others were things they used to get our attention. We eventually got hungry and found a place to eat. I wasn't too hungry because I had snacked on the wares of the street vendors so I only purchased some Baklava and some Turkish Tea. Good life choice. It was amazing. The best Baklava I have ever eaten. The Turks also know how to make some good beverages. Tea and coffee there are phenomenal. If I ate lots of Turkish food for the rest of my life, it wouldn't make me sad. As the evening progressed and we wandered through the streets more, we found ourselves wanting to find something new. There was a square that, from what we heard, was where lots of people liked to hang out, and we thought some people watching was in order. But when we got there, all was not as we planned.

Our first indication that something was up should have been that no one was going up the stairs, in fact, people were going down the up escalators. Not really thinking much of it we pressed through the crowds and just as we stepped onto the escalator everything became clear…in that fuzzy, I can't really see way. Apparently there was a protest up in this square and tear gas had been thrown to disperse the crowds. We walked right into it. We continued up to see what the deal was and we saw lots of police and riot control teams, etc. We hung around for a little bit, but as things appeared to escalate we bid a hasty retreat to anywhere other than where we were. We eventually decided to end the evening and head back to the hostel. 

*****

Day 2 in Istanbul started a lot like the first. A wonderful breakfast on the roof, sun beating down on us in glorious spring like fervor. We had a few hours before meeting the others so we went up a nearby tower to see over the city. It was also beautiful. Wind was a bit of an issue whenever we were up high, or by the water. No big deal though.

When we met the others we decided to go to the Prince's Islands; some islands a few miles off the mainland. The ferry ride was nice and we saw many birds playing with the people on the deck as they threw food to the birds and watched them catch it. It was a fun game all seemed to enjoy. I did not participate because if I was going to spend some money on food, you can be sure I was going to the the one eating it.

The island we got off on was nice. At the top was a park. We wandered around that and saw the back side of the island where we took many pictures. It was a nice time and the only motivation to leave was the threat of being left on the island by the last ferry and our increasing hunger. After we found out we had time, we ate at a local restaurant. Clearly this was not your average tourist restaurant because no one spoke a word of English. With a lot of pointing at the menu we finally got our order taken care of. We were excited. It was going to be delicious. When it came out, we were not disappointed. We did however, probably get taken for a loop on the bill later. They used the excuse of not speaking a common language to over charge us. Whatever, it was in Lira and the exchange rate wasn't too bad.

We took the last ferry out and when we got to the mainland, went our separate ways for the night. At our hostel Michael and I had to plan on how to get to Sofia, Bulgaria. We always figured we could take a train out, because that's what you do in every European country. We could do this for Istanbul too, but the only train out was at 10pm the next night.

*****

Day 3 in Istanbul. We weren't really sure how things were going to go in the train department so we checked out of our hostel early the next morning and headed to the train station. There we got a little more information, emphasis on little. We made our reservation and stored our bags in the locker, and went out for one last day in the city.

That morning before we had gotten ready to go, I woke up to the 6:30 call to prayer from the minaret on the Blue Mosque. I hadn't woken up to it any previous mornings so it was interesting that I did this time. I wasn't really unhappy. It was quite cool and after it was done I fell back asleep. I wanted to go to the Asian side of the city just to say that I have been to Asia, so we hopped on the ferry and went across, meeting the other two for the last day. Since we arrived early we walked around the city for a while, finding slums and pretty areas alike. We met up with the others right around linch time so I grabbed a snack and we headed off. This morning for breakfast I had eaten two portions. It turned out to be a good choice. We had heard a tale of a fancy district in the hills so we headed that direction. We found it and walked around for a while. I was pleased to get pictures and since the weather was gorgeous, we just meandered around the park. Eventually we got hungry and so we made plans for the rest of the day. We wanted to go on the Bosphorus cruise, but more importantly we wanted food. We didn't find much other than street vendors until we walked around a corner and found a very local place. It was very much off the beaten path and was about as authentic as it could get. No one who worked there spoke English or German, but a customer did. He translated for us, but we were still a little unclear about what we were getting. We knew it was something to do with chicken. But we were okay with just being surprised. 

It was the best surprise ever. It was amazing food. I really have no words for it other than that. We ate the food and then he offered us a complementary tea. As I had previously said, the beverages here are great. We gladly obliged. The bill was considerably less than the day before, and when we left we headed for the boat dock. We found  a cruise that left 40 minutes from when we were there so we found a bench in the sun to sit for a while. It was lovely. At 16 C, I was wearing a thin T-Shirt and was very comfortable, I had packed my jacked away long before. The day was not all perfect because when I went to the water's edge to take some pictures, I dropped a lens cap into the water and it quickly vanished. I was a little upset by this but I wasn't going to let it ruin my day. I wrapped a lens cloth around the lens and rubber banded it to it and buried it deep in my camera bag. 

The cruise came and we found that it was money well spent. At this point it was late afternoon and the sun was dipping low in the sky creating beautiful lighting everywhere. All the couples were out on the deck enjoying the romantic atmosphere. I was out on the deck with all available lenses enjoying the lighting as well. Bridges and mosques were lit up by the setting sun and I couldn't let this moment pass without snapping a few (hundred) pictures.

Back on the main land we walked through the Spice Bazaar and the Grand Bazaar one last time. I had about 30 pictures left on my card and used them there as sparingly as I would if I were shooting a roll of film. We ended up back on the water's edge and wanted something to drink and just sit and relax as we waited for the time to head our separate ways. On the main market bridge, similar to the Rialto in Venice, we got hounded by restaurant workers to come to their place. We wanted something less expensive and less…chaotic so we chose a square looking out over the bridge in front and some mosques behind. I got some salep and a basket of pastries from the vendors and we watched the people. I must tell you about salep. It is the most wonderful drink in the world. It is the consistency, and heat, of molten lava, but it tastes fantastic. It is made up of honey, orchid blossom extract, vanilla, milk and a few other things, with cinnamon on the top. For 1 lira, I had to buy it. Since I had it the night before I knew what I was getting into. Best lira spent ever. The pastries were similar to donuts or dumplings. A fluffy goodness covered in honey. I was eating well while watching the people. It was a great way to end a great start of the trip.

*****

We headed to the train station a little early because we still weren't sure what was going on. There I saw something familiar that I didn't expect to see. A crew was setting up film equipment all over the station. Cables for lights running everywhere, jibs and cranes set up, camera crews waiting on the crop and electric department, and the directing team sitting in a back room with the actors. I watched this with interest. It was strange not being a part of it. I wanted to see the differences between the way they ran the program versus the way we do in America. There weren't many.

We figured out that we would have to catch a bus to a train somewhere else because Turkey doesn't do a lot of trains. The bus dropped us off in the middle of nowhere that happened to have a train. It all seemed to be a little haphazard. We get to our sleeper car and find it to be pretty janky. Just like I had envisioned things to be. I wasn't disappointed at all, in fact I was quite pleased with the new adventure. I had also never been in a sleeper car so I was stoked to sleep while going across a country. Its funny that I thought I would sleep. The first bit I did, but border control woke us up three times and the ticket man twice. One of the times for passport control, we had to go out into this building with nothing there other than a desk with people wearing the stereotypical Slavic police uniforms. Later in Bulgaria the border police came in and made sure we weren't smuggling people across, took our passports to make sure we were not villainous and then we finally got some sleep.

Our trip to Turkey was awesome. The rest of the trip promises grand adventure into the world of the unknown…eastern Europe. The Bulgarian train ride is not over. It in fact becomes more interesting. To find out more be sure to read my upcoming blog about Bulgaria. 

It started with a hat -updated

I have been told countless times that practice makes perfect. But recently I heard something that was even truer. Since no one is perfect, there is no way practice can make perfect. Instead practice makes permanent. The more we practice something the more habitual it becomes; whether it be sports, music, or brushing ones teeth, practicing these activities leads to a more permanent skill developed. This is all well and good on paper, but there are exceptions to every rule. I found this exception on the walk back to the dorm last night.

Much to my delight, most of this week has been white with snow. We finally got the wintery wonderfulness I had been longing for. This unfortunately means I have to walk everywhere because I already have proven my skill on a bicycle to be more comical then useful and I felt adding ice to the equation would just make life more challenging. Mostly because it takes way too long to get places, I have despised walking as a method of transportation in all areas where I can avoid it. Walking through cities is, on the other hand, mostly nice because I see more and can stop and take pictures at will. Walking through campus just becomes tedious. 

After spending the afternoon frolicking in the snow like small children, we were very tired, but very content to have enjoyed the weather in its fullness. I had one last thing I had to do for the day before I could call it quits. I was to document a worship service via videos and pictures. It was not something I sweat much so I loaded my backpack with my cameras, tripod, stabilizer and my few accessories, to make sure things didn't go amiss, and traipsed across campus. It was growing especially cold as the evening drew nearer. This was nice because it meant the snow might be hanging around. Unfortunately it also meant more ice. I would soon forget that last part to joy of everyone around me.

After a successful and uneventful session I packed up my belongings and headed back with the group. I had my favorite winter hat perched somewhat precariously atop my head and when I went to run up and startle the small group ahead of me with the flash on my camera, it happened. Some say that words cannot describe how fantastic it was. I woke up this morning and words came to mind, but they were mostly grunts of pain and soreness. But the best description I could find is of a giraffe suddenly discovering what ice is after running on solid ground. 

It happened this way. The aforementioned hat that was previously perched ever so precariously atop the vertex of my very being, released it's grasp in fantastic fanfare. As I was running up to the group the wind of my immense speed caught it and robbed me of my warmth and was about to destroy my pride. As I had mentioned I had developed at this point, a fantastic speed. Unfortunately I had worn my shoes with good traction earlier in the day when we were out frolicking and they had become wet and uncomfortable to wear. So I was wearing my approach shoes, which are half rock climbing shoe half regular shoe. Super useless on ice. May as well have been wearing newly waxed skis. The tremendous speed that I had acquired took some time to change and even though I am adept at walking upon ice, I had, in this moment, forgotten the one basic thing, always keep your feet moving. As my feet and head were trading places I realized my wrong doing and was about to pay for it in pride points. I hit the ground with what must have been an epic velocity because I found myself suddenly the recipient of a great amount of laughing. As I gathered my wits and replayed in my mind what just happened, I also began to laugh. It must have been hilarious to see and I was kind of sad I didn't get to see it. The giraffe's now useless legs flailing about, trying desperately to stay upright, sliding across the ice in cartoonish awesomeness. It was a fall for the ages, or so my neck and back now tell me. Everyone there was so happy they got to witness it. I guess I was happy to oblige? As the story got retold to those who didn't see it, words were replaced with bouts of laughter and it started a fun evening making everything turn out well in the end.

Practice clearly doesn't make perfect. I have been walking on snow and ice my entire life. It is really not that hard for me at least eighty percent of the time. And while practice does make permanent habits, changing something as simple as footwear can drastically change the outcome of something we may have worked years to perfect. I am still working on perfecting the art of walking, even on dry flat ground…but maybe, with any luck, I will get there some day. 

When in Rome...

Rome is a fascinating city. Upon arriving, I could see that it was different from any other city I had ever been too. First off, there are only 3 million people that live in the city. The problem with this is that they are all in the main train station at all times of the day. The rest of the touristy areas that the average visitor would see is packed with 753 people per square meter. Of course we are here during a holiday so it could be a lot better the rest of the year, I have no idea. Another indication that it was unlike any other city was that it was Rome and it has cool things like the Colosseum and the Vatican (yes I know, technically a country), and many other awesome things like fountains everywhere.

We mostly by luck made it to our hostel. There weren't really clear directions and the one or two people that gave us directions weren't the best English speakers. Our hostel guy was the most helpful person in the whole country. Seriously, he is a cool dude. If you ever stay in Rome and are looking for a hostel, stay at the Lodi Hostel (different from Hotel Lodi), the customer service is great, and they make some of the best coffee I have ever had. The man spent a while showing us all about Rome on the map he had and then, because our room wasn't ready he had us hang out in the common room and he fed us yummy pastries, something we now are used to as a common experience, bless you free breakfasts. When our room was ready we spent some time doing laundry and planning the week out and then meeting up with other Friedensau buddies. It was nice to see someone other than our small group.

The next day we went to the Vatican. To avoid standing in line for hours one must get up super early. This makes me sad because I don't like getting up early, especially on breaks. But it was worth it to potentially not stand in line. The morning came and we stood in line for two hours. Markedly less than others had several hours later, we found out. We got inside and saw the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo is a genius mastermind. The Sistine Chapel was awesome, but what really struck me as cool was the roof of the building right before the chapel. It had what looked like sculptures coming right off the ceiling. It turns out it was just amazingly 3-D painting.

Later we hung out and at some lunch around one of the gardens and then went and explored areas of Rome close by, including the Pantheon. I think the Romans built some of these things just because they looked cool and frankly why not. It seems like a cool attitude to build a city. Millions of people have enjoyed visiting it. I'd call that a success. 

*****

New Year Eve was an interesting experience to say the least. We hear about a massive group of people in a famous square and fireworks that last an hour. Because we love fireworks, hate being stuck in a crowd, we arrived a few hours early. Besides, there was word of a concert. Well there was no concert, and the square was pretty much empty except for a few people who had started the night off early with some kind of intoxicant. They were talking to us in Italian and all I understood was Mafia. They kept saying it a lot so we decided it was probably for the best to move elsewhere. When it became closer to midnight, more people crowded in. But it wasn't until about 23:30 that everyone came. Apparently everyone is still out eating. We were really early. During the hour before, many people were throwing firecrackers into the center of the square. Many people were around it but no one was in the square itself. We soon found out. That's where the people throw their firecrackers. These aren't your average firecrackers. They are very large and extremely loud. Some were very near us and we had to plug our ears a lot. The firecrackers going off and the altogether chaos crescendoed at midnight and finally a few fireworks that left the ground went off. None of it was orchestrated by the city, it was just some people in crowds. People began throwing their now completely empty wine bottles into the square. I was perplexed at how different it was than any other celebration I had seen. People were throwing the big firecrackers into the crowd and they were going off there, it became a bit more like a celebratory riot than anything else. We out of the way and had a good view of the festivities. But because we new the metro would be absolutely insane later, we headed back early. 

*****

Since then we have had a rest day where we didn't go out and do much because we have been walking a lot, and we have also experienced some other really cool things like the Colosseum and Palatine hill. Both were awesome. Palatine hill showed me a little better how awesome the Roman Empire must have been as far as architecture and engineering. I have great respect for people who could build that with the technology they had then. Palatine hill and the Colosseum are right next to each other so one can go from one to the other easily, and on the same ticket. I was really happy to go to the Colosseum, it promised to be one of my favorite things in Rome. It indeed was spectacular. During the whole day I had the Gladiator soundtrack stuck in my head. It seemed so appropriate. The epicness of the music fits so well with the epicness of Rome. So naturally when we got back to the hostel for the night, we had to put the movie on. It showed the areas around the Colosseum and of course the Colosseum itself and I felt pretty cool having just been there.

Rome is an awesome city with millions of visitors every year.  So you would think that it has a good public transportation system. You would think…but then you would be wrong. It has two metro lines that make a bit of an X inside the city, so if you are unfortunate enough to be in any of the four quadrants without a metro close, which is pretty much everywhere, you have to find another way. Busses run everywhere but its all super ambiguous about what runs where and when, etc. Yesterday we passed a bus stop and for the first time saw some information about the line. This was a surprise to us, most stops don't have any of this information on them. Therefore we elect to walk most places. When we do take the metro, it is almost always really crowded, and as the locals tell us here, it is a perfect place for pickpockets. I have a good pickpocket protection plan, I use a screw gate carabiner on the zipper of my backpack so that it cannot be unzipped without unscrewing the carabiner, then unhooking it, and opening the bag, a process that takes me upwards of 30 seconds to a minute. I also have good situational awareness so I feel like I am in not too big of a danger. 

The crowds on the metro are predictable with the time of day and the location of the stop. Obviously at rush hour times by the main station it will be fullest. We combat this by standing at the very ends of the platform where no one wants to walk because its a long ways. This is often rewarded with less crowded areas. One time, we didn't have time to get to the end and the metro was extremely full. We tried jamming ourselves in various cars but it didn't seem to work well. Eventually we could bust in, but by then the doors had begun to close. I wasn't all the way in and the metro began to eat me. The doors closed on me and I was eaten in half. Fortunately technology has a correction for times like this and the doors opened and I could keep getting in. By this time the Italians knew I was in earnest and gave me some room. 

Our trip was concluded with a trip to a Roman Civilization museum where there were many awesome things about ancient Rome in it including a model that apparently took 20 years to complete. It is a very detailed model of the entire city in the height of its glory. It was about 30 feet across and I wasn't too keen on leaving right away. We had made plans to visit the beach but that day it was raining and there are fewer things less fun then the beach when it is raining so we elected to not go. Nevertheless we had a great time just wandering back. We got off at a metro stop we hadn't been to before and wandered into a new part of the city and without any intended goal quickly found ourselves in the middle of the dead zones where you are in the middle of the two metro areas where there isn't a metro for a long ways. This made us sad, but after inadvertently going onto American soil via the consulate and then finding a few random side streets that were really pretty, we eventually made it to a metro station. Caching maps of cities on Google Maps with your phone so that when you are offline you can still see stuff is a useful tip that you learn after wandering through a few cities. It didn't really matter anyways because we didn't need to be anywhere. 

That night, Michael and I decided that because it was our last night in Italy we needed to actually spend money and go find some place to eat that wasn't a grocery store. When traveling the way we do, one becomes very clever at how little money is spent while still maintaining a sustainable diet. We searched for a long time for a restaurant without previously having one in mind, and after an hour we came across one that looked pretty good. And because it is in Italy, and served Italian food (as opposed to the Chinese restaurants and the various Burger Kings and McDonalds) it was indeed good food. We left Italy on a good note at least with the food.

Morning came and we were heading off to the airport to fly back to Berlin. Remember in my earlier blogs how I said public transportation in Italy is bad, and how I constantly say that German trains are late…well going into this experience with that in mind, my hopes weren't high. This turned out to be a good thing, because it was a normal airport experience, and the plane wasn't delayed more than your average delay, we sat on the runway no longer than your normal time when flying United or American Airlines, and had a really, quite nice flight back. On the flight I could pull out my very rusty German and use it again. I only listened to the German segments of the flight attendants' speeches and did all the conversing that one does with them in German. It was nice to get back to a country where everyone spoke German. Granted everyone spoke English in Italy, and pretty much everyone speaks English in Germany too, but it was nice to be able to speak German. I felt more comfortable with the fact that I could use two different languages to get my point across if I needed to. We made it back to Berlin and the ever familiar Hauptbahnhof and the same familiar ride back home. That night as I settled back into my room by dropping my bags at the foot of my desk, and crawling into bed, I was very excited to be back. But I was also excited about the trip that we had just taken, all the experiences I had had, and all the things I had learned. There is no way I would trade that for anything. And with that in mind, I began the next chapter in my life at Germany…The life after Christmas break.

Trip through Italy Part 2: Florence, the Introduction to the real Italy.

Our trip to Florence the next day was my first real introduction to visiting Italy. Since it is a holiday season it is exceptionally busy. I cannot say whether or not the crowds of people are always there, but for us on our trip, they were there. Goodness there are lots of people everywhere. People bumping into you and the threat of one of those people being a pick pocketer makes you really aware of just where everything is in your pockets all the time.

The markets here were huge. Just big markets everywhere we went. It was really cool. Walking through one of them Michael and I got called Tom Cruise and James Bond because we were wearing our sunglasses and they wanted to get our attention. We then had a  lengthy discussion about who would be who. We both just decided we would be different James Bonds. In Germany I don't think we can be as easily spotted as Americans. In Italy we stick out. Especially me. No one here is tall and blonde. Besides that, unlike Germany, no one here wears backpacks. They pull along the rolly suitcases instead of carrying things on their backs. Apparently backpacks are not the latest in fashion. Oh well, practicality is the new hot in Germany. It's also naturally quite convenient imagine that.

Day one in Florence was spent exploring the city around our hostel. This meant the giant cathedral there. It was super cool and one of the most ornate buildings I had ever seen. (Naturally going to Rome this has changed.) It is still really ornate and really big. In our time walking through the city I learned that traffic laws are really ambiguous in Italy. It doesn't matter where you are, sidewalk, crosswalk or tucked away in a corner you could die from a vehicle…or so it seemed. I almost got taken out by a bus while standing by a bike rack. Fortunately I pay attention to my surroundings and I moved out of the way. 

The second day in Florence was really cool too. It had been raining quite vigorously through the night and early morning so when Michael and I got out everything was really wet. This was okay for me, everything was naturally more saturated in color so that made the pictures just that much easier. We went through the city, going in the not as populous regions. It was prettier there I think, probably because I could see things other than masses of heads bobbing in a giant crowd. We went to the Pitti Palace and wandered through the grounds there for several hours. We eventually left and met up with the others where we went up to a big hill overlooking the city. It is a hill built in dedication to Michelangelo. Naturally this is a fantastic place to view the city. I turned around to look at the hillside and was surprised to see a Ferrari California parked by a fountain. Apparently if you pay the company enough you can drive one around the city. I did not, because I could not, but I enjoyed the view. Twenty minutes later I saw a Ferrari F430 parked in some random backyard and decided then and there that Italy wasn't a bad place. Not that I was concerned it would be.

We moved on from Michelangelo Piazza and headed out to the countryside. Even in a beautiful city I like to see the country some times. I was not saddened when I saw the Tuscany countryside. One thing that we saw a lot of was olive trees. They are everywhere. Since we were walking around, we had time to think about olives and their strangeness. For example, who in the world figured out that they were good to eat. If you have had an olive directly from a tree you no longer want to live life. They are horrible. But somehow, once they are soaked in salt water they are delicious. People have weird ideas to come up with food but I am okay with that because most of the time they are fantastically delicious. Ahem, I speak to you Italy. Exhausted from days and days of walking through cities, we headed back early to take a much needed rest. We felt pleased with our time in Florence so we were okay. We were heading to Rome the next day anyways, so we got ready for that. 

The day to travel to Rome arrived and we met it head on. We were at the train station a little early and waited for our train. When you live in Germany, there are several things you start to take for granted. Organization of public transportation is one of them. Not to say that the German trains are ever on time, but you know what's going on most of the time. While watching the board for train arrivals and departures we formulated the theory that there was an Italian man in a booth somewhere moving trains to various places frantically hoping he doesn't mess up and get two trains in the same place. We could imagine him saying "This'a train goes'a here, and this'a train goes'a here…Oh no! I already a'have'a train a'here!" It looked just short of chaos. Our train was of course delayed so I had some time to watch the marquee and subsequently learn a little Italian. I Saw that a specific train was delayed an hour because of something to do with a single person...I saw the word retardi...not implying anything, just saying what I read. Another theory is that maybe the train was hijacked my a single musician and was driving the train too slowly. I don't know. 

We eventually got on our train, and I died a little inside when we could smell Italian food the whole trip. I don't buy food on trains, my wallet would probably commit suicide. Fortunately my misery was brief as was the trip to Rome. The cool thing about Europe is that trains aren't a thing one just ships coal on. People actually use it to travel (a novel concept I know), so they are good at traveling. They go like the clappers. I saw it going roundabouts 150 miles per hour (It was in kilometers per hour so the conversion was not exact). In Rome we began part 3 of our Trip through Italy. Stay tuned for the next blog: Trip Through Italy Part 3: When in Rome...

Trip through Italy Part 1: Venice.

Venice isn't like the rest of Italy at all. First of all, there are no roads, so therefore no cars. This means you are now safe from someone trying to kill you. Traffic laws in Italy seem to only apply to boats, and Venice runs on boats.

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After our experiences in Salzburg, we headed off to Italy. I had never been anywhere near Italy so I had no idea at all what to expect. I knew that my German would be pretty much useless there. I was hoping my English wouldn't too. Of course I was being ridiculous, everyone speaks English. I have had no problems expressing myself to the Italians. I just talk with my hands and I can fit right in, they understand what I am saying too. The train ride from Salzburg to Venice was just as pretty as it sounds like it would be. From the prettiest place I have seen to the prettiest place people tell me to see. Over the ocean, under mountains, through vast valleys we went! It was a great ride. My welcome into Italy was a giant snowstorm. The stone giants in the mountains were fighting with snow and it looked to be fierce. Then again we were going around 150 miles per hour so it could have been a gentle serene falling of snow that one thinks of when they hear Swan Lake. But at 150mph everything seems more like the 1812 Overture mixed with a little Bonanza theme. 

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Thankfully it wasn't snowing when we got to Venice. I say this only because I was not dressed for the cold and we had a ways to go to get to our hostel. That night Michael and I explored our little lagoon called Lido (like Toledo but without the "Ta") and found the ocean. It had been a while since I had genuinely been to a warm ocean so I was happy. It was dark and the stars were out. The Milky Way was out and I could see it streak across the sky in its typical awesomeness. We stood there for a while until the threat of our feet getting wet by the incoming waves moved us off the beach. We walked around until we got tired and then went to bed. The next morning was going to be a long day so we wanted to make sure we got enough sleep.

Our day began with a trip to the main island of Venice. Just being off shore we were technically not in Venice but we were really right there. In a normal city, the distance we had to go from our hostel to the city center would have only taken five to ten minutes, but because there are no cars let alone busses on the island, we had to take boats. All the boat traffic goes in one way. We ended up nearly circumnavigating the entire city before getting to where we wanted, taking about 45 minutes. This wasn't bad though, we were seeing the city from the water and it looked awesome.

We got onto land and realized that it was going to be really confusing to get anywhere. There aren't really streets and so not really technical street names. There are a few but that's about it. We did see some strangely helpful graffiti pointing us in the right direction once. I was happy that a reprobate had guided his moral compass enough to lend a helping hand. Other than the one surprisingly helpful graffiti, there wasn't much to go on as far as navigation. More than once we found ourselves almost stepping into the street, which is a big deal when it is water. I decided a Postal worker's first week on the job has got to be one of the worst things ever. 

The city of Venice is pretty. I was actually more in awe of the fact that it was a city on the water and that it was structurally sound. Besides, it's not like its the most modern city ever. But really, who's idea was it to build a city in the water anyways? I could come up with simpler things. But really, the city was super. After covering pretty much everything in that city, we split off and Michael and I found something to eat on the island while the others went back to Lido. We got lost trying to find the toilets that were always just around the next corner but were really a long ways off. Whoever designed the city must have been on some really heavy drugs, because there is no rhyme or reason to the placement of the buildings. The city makes no navigational sense at all, at least if you are walking. We finally returned to the area where we wanted to eat. Even cheap Italian food is really yummy so naturally I was pleased with life. 

I took so many pictures that day that my camera was probably just as grateful for the rest that night as I was. So when I finally hit the hay for the night, I slept wonderfully. A side note about sleeping in Italy, the beds are back to normal here. It has been a long time since I saw a non German style bed. I almost didn't know what to do. For those of you who don't know, there isn't a regular sheet on a German bed, it is instead a fancy covering on the bedspread that you pull off and wash, I don't remember the name, something French naturally. The point is, they are a little different, so seeing a normal bed threw me off guard. It's okay, I am adaptable. Nonetheless, I sleep beautifully just about wherever I am. Venice was no exception. We could hear the ocean from our hostel. It was nice.

The next day we moved on to Florence. I once again had no idea what to expect. As it turns out, the difference between Venice and Florence is about as much as going into a whole new country. Yes everyone still spoke a language that I only understand because they speak also with their hands, but other than that, they are different. (Just for clarification, I don't understand Italian by any stretch of the imagination) Check out my next blog, Florence: The Introduction to the real Italy, to hear about part 2 of our Trip through Italy. 

Day 2 Salzburg: The mountains are calling and I must go.

Day two in Salzburg dawned with the promise of being just as amazing as the day before. So true to our form we waited until a more reasonable hour, and when everything would potentially open, to wake up and start the day. 

Because it was Christmas there were only a handful of things open. One of them was a cable car to the top of one of the Alp passes. Because I cannot miss the opportunity to get to the tops of mountains I voted vociferously for this one. I was unchallenged. Everyone thought it was a brilliant idea. So off we went to the mountains. 

Nothing is ever as easy as it sounds. We had to go north to go south because we were originally too far south on our bus line to catch the one to the mountains. Then Michael got left at the Hauptbahnhof. We figured of anybody in our group to get left, he was probably the best one. We eventually reunited at the cable car station. More twists in our plan to get to the mountains; the cable car was closed due to wind. Not to be disheartened too much we went for a walk. We were in the country anyways so why not? We found a bubbly little river to sit beside. There we hung out for a couple hours throwing rocks, listening to music, and just having a swell time. While we were not atop the mountains, they were all around us; my yearning for mountains was being slowly assuaged and I became altogether blissful. 

Eventually we decided we should head back. Because the cable car was on our way to the bus we thought it couldn't hurt to see if it had opened and was letting people up. 

The magic of Christmas struck again! It was indeed taking people up the mountain! I was beside myself. To paraphrase a man who felt similarly about mountains as me, "The mountains were calling and I had to go."  The cable ride up was stunning. The cliffs of the Alps are unlike any I have ever seen before. We get to the top and the snow capped peaks were now under my feet. The high one gets when they are in the mountains is better than any drug humans have tried to create. After I threw on another layer of clothes I ran to the highest peak I could find. 

They say heaven is just beyond the stars. I say heaven is just before the stars, on the peaks of mountains. After I had ran up the highest point around I got out my camera and spent time marveling at the beauty around me. 

I never know how long I am in the mountains for. Time seems to stop. But I do know it was not long enough, but at the threat of being left by the last cable car we headed back. 

I am sure I looked like a madman running up and down the snowy slopes, but I was in the mountains so I was a madman. Besides I had been at too low of an elevation for too long and I needed to exercise at some kind of elevation. 

We returned back to the city, the thoughts of the mountains never leaving my mind. We walked around the once again bustling Christmas Markets and got some yummy Christmas treats, the four of us ate our supper on the same benches that Michael and I did the night before only this time there were loads of people. The now not so far away music echoed off the walls of the surrounding buildings and provided another fantastic atmosphere for supper. 

After supper we wandered around the city and watched the people ice skate. Because it was so warm there was a giant pool of water in the middle. But the skaters made the most of it and were having a good time. Later Michael and I took the other two up to the wall to look out across the city. This time there was one or two other people there for a short time, but it remained a quiet place to sit and look out across the city. We eventually headed back. We weren't in a hurry though because Salzburg's effect had its full grip around us and we didn't want to leave. 

After Salzburg we head to Venice. It will be interesting and I cannot wait to see what exciting adventures Italy has in store for us.